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Opaka was born under Cardassian rule during the half-century long occupation of her world. As an adult, she rose to great prominence among the Bajoran spiritual community, eventually becoming Kai.

Constantly working to protect her people and serve the will of the Prophets, Opaka became a revered figure among her people. During the last decade of the Occupation, however, she once secretly collaborated with the Cardassians. Opaka sent PrylarBek to inform them of the location of a Bajoran Resistance cell in the Kendra Valley. This saved the lives of 1,200 other Bajorans, as the Cardassians would have otherwise destroyed the entire valley, but Opaka sacrificed her son in the process – as a member of the cell, he was killed in the resulting massacre. Opaka's involvement was never discovered, even after Prylar Bek made a full confession. VedekBareil lost the kaiship to keep secret the fact she had sacrificed her son and his group in order to save hundreds of civilians from retribution. (DS9: "The Collaborator")

As first conceived by Gary Holland, the story that became "The Collaborator" involved another female who had secretly committed a crime, as the perpetrator was originally a young daughter who had murdered Kira Nerys' father and whose deed was being covered up by her own father. Three days after initially discussing the plot (and therein changing the crime to that of collaboration with the Cardassians), Opaka was made the culprit, during a very short story meeting between Holland and Ira Steven Behr. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Companion, p. 147)

When the Cardassians retreated from Bajor in 2369, the Bajoran people began forming factions, vying for control of their new found independence. Each side looked to Opaka for support. She went into hiding on Bajor, refusing to meet with anyone.

When the Bajoran Provisional Government invited Starfleet to take command of the former Cardassian space stationTerok Nor in orbit of Bajor, CommanderBenjamin Sisko was placed in command of the renamed station, Deep Space 9. Hoping to unite the various Bajoran factions, Sisko met with Opaka. She surprised many by identifying Sisko as the prophesied Emissary of the Prophets. Opaka believed that Sisko's arrival had a deep spiritual purpose, in fact, that it was a fulfillment of prophecy that he would be the savior of Bajor. She entrusted Sisko with a powerful and mysticalorb, telling him his destiny was to reclaim eight other orbs stolen by the Cardassians. Kai Opaka used the orb to transport Sisko to the beach where he first met his wife. Sisko later discovered the home of the Prophets, the Bajoran wormhole, which the Bajorans identified as the Celestial Temple. Later, he spoke with Kai Opaka, who informed Sisko that he was the Emissary of the Prophets and this was not last time he would work with the Bajoran prophets to secure the future of Bajor. (DS9: "Emissary")

Of course, Opaka experienced disagreement from other Bajorans about this proclamation. VedekWinn Adami, for example, asked her why an unbeliever was destined for this role. Opaka told her that, "one should never look into the eyes of one's own gods". As she disagreed with that, at Opaka's suggestion, Winn sat in darkness for a day, an action she considered quite proper. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

After several months, Opaka left Bajor for Deep Space 9 to visit Sisko. Compelled by the Prophets to travel into the wormhole, Opaka somehow knew that she would not be returning. During a trip to the Gamma Quadrant, Opaka died in a runaboutcrash on a moon.

The moon was discovered to be a prison on which artificial microbes kept the prisoners forever alive to wage war with one another. These microbes resurrected Opaka, but forced her to remain on the moon. The artificial microbes restored a person's body after death, but that body then became permanently dependent on those microbes for all cellular functions. Anyone with the microbes would die if taken away from the moon. Accepting her new situation as the will of the Prophets, Opaka remained behind. She hoped to teach the warring prisoners peace. (DS9: "Battle Lines")

Opaka's disappearance was mourned across Bajor. Vedek Winn told Sisko that Opaka could not be replaced and missed her deeply. (DS9: "In the Hands of the Prophets")

Opaka appeared in an orb shadow that Sisko experienced in 2372. He had stepped down as the Emissary when Akorem Laan, who had been in the Celestial Temple for 200 years, returned and said that the prophets had chosen him to be the Emissary. Opaka convinced Sisko that he should accept his destiny and that he was the rightful emissary. (DS9: "Accession")

In ultimately unused dialogue from the second draft script of "Accession", Kira suggested to Sisko that the vision of Opaka he had seen was actually an attempt by Opaka to telepathically communicate with him. Skeptical of this theory, Sisko remarked, "We don't even know if she's still alive," which Kira then acknowledged.

In the revised final draft script for "Emissary", Opaka's name was phonetically notated "o-PAH-ku". [1] According to the final draft scripts for "Battle Lines" and "The Collaborator", however, her name was pronounced as "oh-PAH-kah". [2][3]

Originally, Kai Opaka was to have been a man who was spiritual leader of the Bajorans and often conflicted with Starfleet's goals. His visitors had to disrobe while he probed their pagh through deep-tissue massage of their feet. This version of the character was written into the first draft of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Bible. (The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, pp. 37-38, 87, 114)

Of course, the Kai was ultimately changed from male to female, her visitors never had to take off their clothes, and she (like other Bajoran religious leaders) generally checked people's paghs by touching their earlobes rather than their feet. The change of the character's gender was made in order to add to the series' collection of strong female characters. Showing her visitors undressing and having Opaka check their paghs via foot massages might look silly, and if those concepts remained, the obligatory disrobing scenes would consume much-needed story and production time, so – for the sake of simplicity – the pagh was relocated to the earlobes and the disrobing idea was discarded. (The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, p. 108)

The altered depiction of the Kai was included in a revised draft of the DS9 series bible. (The Making of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, p. 108) In that document, Opaka was described as "The spiritual leader of Bajor who provides sharp counterpoint to the secular nature of Starfleet. She challenges conventional Human logic. The Kai explores her guests' 'pagh' (roughly translated: energy meridian) through deep tissue massage of their ears that seems to reveal their true nature. Opaka tells Sisko in the opening episode that the commander is on a personal journey. And that he has been sent to Bajor to find the celestial temple of the prophets – the source of the mysterious orbs. When Sisko investigates, he discovers the wormhole and the aliens who built it. The Kai seems to have an awareness on a higher plane of consciousness, knows things she cannot possibly know. Although our people do not accept her 'powers' at face value, we cannot always explain them either. She speaks in vague, mystical and indirect language, forcing the listener to seek her meaning." [4]

In the "Emissary" script (both its first draft and its revised final draft), Opaka was described as "a strange looking, middle aged Bajoran dressed in a colorful sheath... there is a centered calm in her, she seems to exist on a higher plane. Yet there is a deep sadness in this woman who carries the pain of her people. She has been hurt... her face is badly bruised... her scalp has a small bandage... a cane supports a bad limp...." [5]

Reflecting on what was revealed in "The Collaborator", Saviola commented, "I read the script and went 'I had a son!' It was shocking and it excited me. I thought it was very progressive and showed that this is another world after all. We tend to apply Earthly morés – especially American sensibilities – to outer space, and I thought not only was she a Pope to Bajor, but the Kai was a working mother!" On the revelation about Opaka, Saviola commented, "I didn't understand why what I did had to be kept secret, when it was a heroic deed. It was almost like Oskar Schindler: I have sacrificed 40, including my own son, to save twelve hundred." (The Official Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Magazine issue 9)

In the Star Trek: Terok Nor novel Night of the Wolves, set during the Occupation, then-Vedek Opaka pushed for the abolition of the D'jarra caste system in the late 2340s to aid resistance against the Cardassians, as the occupiers were using casteist discrimination to play the Bajorans off against each other. Kai Arin initially expelled her from the Vedek Assembly for her views, but later came to agree with her, for which his Obsidian Order minder killed him.

In an alternate future seen in the Pocket DS9Millennium book trilogy, the Bajoran Ascendancy named a starship after Kai Opaka. It was commanded by Captain Thomas Riker.

In Star Trek Online, a ship was named after Kai Opaka, the USS Opaka. When the 2800 Dominion ships that were lost in the Bajoran wormhole after the Battle of Bajor reappeared and attacked Deep Space 9, the Opaka was at the station, and aided in the station's evacuation.